1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for evaluating and predicting clinical outcomes in patients by measuring levels of protein expression as well as therapies using sIP-10 and its fragments.
2. Description of the Background
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a significant health problem in that chronic hepatitis occurs in about many HCV infected patients and may lead to the development of hepatic cancer. Chronic hepatitis is often treated with interferon α and/or β with varying levels of success.
Even with interferon therapies, there are substantial side effects, and the costs of therapy are very high. Accordingly, there is a need to develop a way to assess when successful results can be expected in an individual patient with a particular IFN therapy.
Thus, an object of the invention is to provide a way in which to predict whether such therapies would be useful for treating certain patients.